Adobe Stock
The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is scheduled to close its doors on July 22.
The announcement, initially released in June, marks the end of the center’s reign as the largest facility in the United States that promotes subjecting children to the often irreversible impact of drugs and surgeries by luring them with the claim that they can undergo “gender transitions” in order to become their “authentic selves.”
“For more than 30 years, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has provided high-quality, evidence-based, medically essential care for transgender and gender-diverse youth, young adults, and their families,” the center stated in its notice. “CHLA is immensely proud of this legacy of caring for young people on the path to achieving their authentic selves. Despite this deeply held commitment to supporting LA’s gender-diverse community, the hospital has been left with no viable path forward except to close the Center for Transyouth Health and Development, effective July 22, 2025.”
The clinic’s closure comes following President Donald Trump’s executive order in January that ended all federal funding for facilities that engage in the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children.
Additionally, US Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum in April on the prevention of the “mutilation of American children,” in which she detailed how the Biden administration promoted so-called “gender-affirming care” to children and teens.
“The Biden administration bears enormous responsibility for the medical community’s fraud and exploitation of parents and children who have fallen prey to radical gender ideology,” Bondi wrote. “President Biden personally advanced the agenda by hosting transgender activist influencers like Dylan Mulvaney at the White House, opposing state-level bans on gender-affirming care for minors, threatening legal action against Medicaid and Obamacare providers who fail to offer such care, and appointing Rachel Levine-a leading transgender activist who personally identifies as transgender-to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health.”
“I am issuing the following guidance to all Department of Justice employees to enforce rigorous protections and hold accountable those who prey on vulnerable children and their parents,” Bondi added.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission also conducted a workshop to assert its role in protecting American consumers from the allegedly fraudulent and deceitful business practices of the transgender medical industry.
In addition to external pressure from the Trump administration, CHLA’s “Transyouth” center has drawn its own controversy in recent years, primarily through the actions of its medical director, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, M.D.
In December, for example, a young woman “detransitioner” filed a landmark lawsuit against Olson-Kennedy, alleging medical negligence for encouraging her, beginning at age 12, to undergo “gender-affirming treatment,” including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and an elective double mastectomy.
Olson-Kennedy also became the subject of an investigation by the House Oversight Committee in November, when it was revealed she had decided to conceal the results of her nearly $10-million National Institute of Health-funded study because they failed to support the effectiveness of puberty blockers in treating mental health issues associated with gender dysphoria.
The transgender industry doctor told the New York Times she was withholding the negative results of her study because of concerns they would be “weaponized” and used in lawsuits as evidence that puberty blockers are not an effective means to treat children expressing gender confusion.
In March 2018, Olson-Kennedy was the subject of headlines as well when she glibly dismissed concerns about whether young girls could give consent to have their healthy breasts removed as part of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
“Adolescents actually have the capacity to make a reasoned, logical decision,” she said. “And here’s the other thing about chest surgery. If you want breasts at a later point in your life, you can go and get them.”
Last week, however, the Associated Press (AP) chose to draw attention to the “protests” against the facility’s closure.
“Trans kids are done being quiet,” said 16-year-old “nonbinary” demonstrator Sage Sol Pitchenik, who reportedly prefers to use the “they” pronoun. “Trans kids are done being polite, and trans kids are done begging for the bare minimum, begging for the chance to grow up, to have a future, to be loved by others when sometimes we can’t even love ourselves.”
As AP observed, California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned the hospital in February that it would be in violation of state antidiscrimination laws if it closed its gender clinic.
“The Trump administration’s relentless assault on transgender adolescents is nothing short of an all-out war to strip away LGBTQ+ rights,” Bonta said in an email to AP. “The Administration’s harmful attacks are hurting California’s transgender community by seeking to scare doctors and hospitals from providing nondiscriminatory healthcare. The bottom line is: This care remains legal in California.”
But Bondi’s memo urged protection for children from an industry that fails to recognize their vulnerability.
“Protecting America’s children must be our top priority, whether from drug cartels, terrorists, or even our own medical community,” she wrote. “Every day, we hear more harrowing stories about children who will suffer for the rest of their lives because of the unconscionable ideology behind ‘gender-affirming care.’”